


The Talk

by orphan_account



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Fluff and Angst, Gen, M/M, Robin is here to help him, Set after the events of season 3 but before the Byers move, Will Byers Has Issues, Will is a Mess, but not too much Angst, will is gay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-21
Updated: 2019-07-21
Packaged: 2020-07-09 13:40:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19888735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Will Byers has always known that there was something different about him, and not just that he spent a week alone in another dimension.Perhaps Robin is the only one in his world that could truly understand him.





	The Talk

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic so be gentle and I wrote it with 0 prompts or notes, only the idea juice in my head. Me and my friends were talking about how this most certainly needs to be a scene in season 4 so that Will can get the boyfriend that he deserves, but in case Netflix are cowards, I wrote this. Enjoy. Or don't.

Will Byers has always known that there was something different about him.

Whilst he appreciated that all his friends were growing up and now wanted their own girlfriends, he knew that was not something of interest to him. Was that because he had other things on his mind, such as when he spent a week in another dimension, alone with the demogorgon? Or was it that he was somehow underdeveloped compared to his lifelong friends and their respective companions, making him biologically inferior to them in some way? Whatever it was, he felt like it was something that couldn't be spoken about with them. He really did love his friends, and he was sure that they loved him back, and yet something inside of him knew that the feelings that he had were not something that they would relate to. There was no doubt in his mind that his friends would listen to him and do all that they could to be supportive of his emotions, but that didn't take away from the fact that they would know none of the right words to say.

Enter Will's current situation. Will had been around Robin enough times to have heard about the many women she had fallen in love with. Yes, the feelings were usually one-sided or lived through the lives of popular celebrities, but still, she was more confident in her feelings than Will ever thought he could be. She felt like the closest thing that Will had to someone that had felt like him - like an outcast.

Robin sat at the centre of the grassy hill that had been used for Dustin to craft his long-frequency radio to communicate with his girlfriend, Suzie. The Party had previously been on a less-than-hectic visit to Mike's house to play a game of Dungeons and Dragons, much to Wills delight. The game had felt both familiar and somewhat distant to him. The usual energy of the game was felt, yet Will knew that Mike, Lucas and Dustin's first priorities were always on the women in their life - Lucas and Mike were always turning towards El and Max every five minutes, and Dustin would constantly spend a few seconds gazing away from the game with longing in his eyes, most likely wishing that he was with Suzie.

At some point during one of Dustin's gazing sessions, a knock on the door was heard, followed by the entry of Steve and Robin. Steve had been helping Dustin talk to Suzie through their radio by regularly driving him to the hill where his equipment was kept. Will had noticed that Steve thought it was unbelievable that Suzie was real, and so did anything he could to keep them together. It was likely that the pair had just finished their shift together at the video shop, and decided to come and pick up their children - whilst Steve had kept his role as the Mom of the group, Robin had quickly been dubbed an auntie, viewing her more of a sister to Steve than anything else. The group had been out for so long that the late afternoon had fallen into the early evening with the stars now on show.

"Hey!" said Robin, turning her head around towards Will and yelling in his direction. "What are you up to, staring at me like that? You got a crush on me?" she innocently teased. Will knew that this was the perfect segway into the conversation that he had waited 14 years of his life to tell.

"Actually, no," replied Will, not confident enough to yell, so that he could try to avoid attention from the others, who were busy occupying themselves. "That sounded rude. I'm sorry."

"Don't mention it," Robin shrugged. God, she was so cool. "Come here and sit."

Will scooched himself towards Robin. He felt as though with every movement of his muscles, he was getting closer to telling his deepest, darkest secret.

"So, what's up?" Robin asked. She was so relaxed in the way that she spoke, but Will felt as though he was being strangled and crushed by the words that he was about to say. This was not an unfamiliar feeling for Will - whenever he had thought about speaking about this issue had arose, so had the crushing feeling. But he refused to succumb to it today, and resisted the urge to reply with a simple /nothing/.

The conversation that he was about to have would most likely shape the rest of Will's life. He'd planned this for so long, had so many things in his head that he wanted to say, so why weren't the words coming out of him? He felt stuck, and let the few seconds of silence drown him.

But instead of letting the water fill his lungs and ultimately letting them kill him, Will took a deep breath in, and went for his dive.

"I've got feelings," he began. "I'm not sure when they started, but I'm pretty sure they've always been there." His hands quivered, but he concentrated his mind on looking down and stabilising them instead of giving them all of the power that he needed to speak. "I like to pretend that they don''t exist, but lately they've just been crushing me and crushing me to the point where I can't breathe. It's like it's rainwater that's been dripping into a box for so long, and lately there have been storms that have been making it impossible to put a lid over the box anymore, and I'm so afraid of what's going to happen when the water overflows."

Robin didn't speak a word - she only looked into Will's eyes, the ones that stared into his hands with feelings of both shame and triumph. Although the younger boy had not yet said directly what he was talking about, she knew the exact feeling that he spoke of - ones that she herself had felt.

"I think the first time that I realised it was when I was feeling jealous of El and Mike," Will continued. "Which sucks, because they're my friends, and I didn't understand why I felt anything other than an insane amount of joy for them. I thought that the only reasonable explanation was that I was jealous that Mike kissed El, and that I didn't get to kiss her. But I know that I just don't feel that way about her. Which means that..." Will trailed off.

Although she didn't want to stop Will, Robin interjected so that Will wouldn't begin to feel uncomfortable in the silence that they now sat in. "I understand," she simply stated. "And I want you to know that these feelings that you have are valid, and nothing to be ashamed of. They're something that, one day, you might even start to embrace. But you can take your time finding out things about yourself because you have your whole life ahead of you. You might feel like an outcast now, because all of your friends have girlfriends, but you're going to find someone who's going to love you for this. It may be hard to see it now, but in the future, you'll be able to use this experience to grow as a person. You've already been through so much, meaning that when you get older, nothing will be able to stop you from doing whatever it is that you want to do in life. And sure, there are some horrible people out there in the world, but there are also such great ones as well."

Once more, the pair fell into silence. Will tilted his head up to the night's sky and listened to the laughter of his friends. Robin was right - although he may leave his teenage years with less experience in the relationship department, he now knew how to speak about his problems, and knew that he had someone close to him who wouldn't judge, and knew just the right thing to say. The lid of the box hadn't only fallen off, but Will was ready to throw it away and live his life without limits. A sudden urge to laugh fell over him, starting as a small giggle, but then developing into something hysterical. He'd never felt like this before - he felt defenceless and exposed, but his vulnerability gave him a chance to openly talk about his issues. He fell hard onto the ground, but didn't bother a second thought of the pain in his back. Surely, his friends were now staring at him and would most certainly have questions, but he didn't care. All of his thoughts were on the future that he would now be able to make for himself without any more boarders. He felt Robin's arms wrap around him, and she was in hysterics also. If felt as though Will had been living in his own head for so long, and he'd finally been able to let someone else in.

\--

Later that night, when Steve had driven the rest of his friends back to their respective houses, Will had gotten out of the car, only to be swiftly followed by Robin. They stood at Will's front door together.

"Kid," she said. "If you ever need to talk, find me. I always have time for you."

"Thanks," Will replied, smiling at the floor.

Robin patted him on the back and turned around to go back to Steve's car. But before she got there, she swang back around to yell, "If you meet someone, I want to be the first person to know!"

"Sure!" Will yelled back, to then be greeted by his mother opening the front door to his house.


End file.
